Duff: Leyland takes calculated gamble

Detroit's Andy Dirks, left, and Austin Jackson head to the dugout after Dirks caught a ball hit by David Ortiz of the Red Sox in the fourth inning of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Comerica Park. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland began the day by promising huge news, and while that might have been stretching a point, it certainly was different.

The Tigers’ batting order, that is.

Eventually, even Leyland had to admit it wasn’t as huge a deal as he’d first made it out to be.

“Huge lineup change,” Leyland started out, before quickly recanting.

“Well really, I don’t know if it’s huge or not, but tonight (Torii) Hunter is going to lead off, (Miguel) Cabrera is going to bat second, (Prince) Fielder is going to bat third . . .”

Leyland continued on to announce his entire batting order, which, other than everyone else moving up one spot, ultimately included only one significant change, the dropping of leadoff hitter Austin Jackson to eighth in the order.

So really, it isn’t huge, but it’s certainly different.

“Jackson in the eight hole will hopefully relax him,” Leyland said.

Trailing the Boston Red Sox 2-1 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series as they took the field at Comerica Park Wednesday for Game 4 of the best-of-seven series, no one exemplifies Detroit’s offensive struggles more than Jackson.

He entered the day batting .091 and Jackson has taken this not hitting thing to the extreme, striking out 18 times in 33 at-bats.

In fact, Leyland admitted he’d contemplated completely removing Jackson from the lineup and going with Don Kelly in centre field.

Fister, Detroit’s Game 4 starter, unlike Detroit’s other three starters Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez, is not a strikeout pitcher.

The Red Sox will put the ball in play off of him, so Leyland felt it was essential that he not sit out his best defensive outfielder.

“Jackson has had some success against (Boston Game 4 starter Jake) Peavy,” Leyland said of Jackson, who has a .321 lifetime average against Peavy. “So we’ll just get him away from it a little bit, the magnitude of that leadoff spot, and hopefully relax him a little bit.”

Really, though, doesn’t this all merely amount to change for the sake of change?

Hunter, 37, isn’t a leadoff hitter, and hasn’t been one for quite some time. And when he was, it’s not like he was very good at it, either.

Wednesday will mark the first time in 13 years that Hunter has batted leadoff. His last try at it was on Sept. 24, 2000 when he was with the Minnesota Twins, the 25th and last game he’d topped the batting order.

Overall, in those 25 games as a leadoff batter, Hunter hit .164 (11-for-67).

Explaining his reasoning for going with Hunter atop the order, Leyland sounded more like a man who was clutching at straw.

Hunter is also batting .182 for the playoffs, but the sad reality of Detroit’s desperation is that both Hunter’s playoff numbers and his career leadoff totals, while feeble, are a significant step up from what Jackson has delivered.

Truth be told, moving Jackson isn’t going to come close to solving all of Detroit’s problems. Fielder, the cleanup hitter, has yet to drive in a run, and Leyland sounded like a man about to drive off a cliff.

“We live with extra-base hits and home runs, because there’s not much speed up there (at the top of the batting order),” Leyland said. “And the speed that was there (Jackson) was not getting on base.

“We’ve got to try to get on the board somehow. We had to do something.”

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